A couple of months ago, the Obama administration was — at least rhetorically — targeting Syrian dictator Bashar Assad for removal. Today, the U.S. has in a perverse way made Assad its partner.

The U.S. and Syria will now be working together on an improbable, even fantastical project: ridding a brutal country at war with itself of chemical weapons.

The agreement, reached over the weekend, to begin disarming Syria represents an astonishing victory for the Assad regime. It is also a victory for Assad's main weapons supplier and diplomatic protector, Russian President Vladimir Putin.